Phone Pics - Japan II

Today Michaela went to KCS with Grandma again.  She is really enjoying helping in the 1st/2nd grade class.  Today is a Japanese holiday and there was a parade in the town where KCS is, so they got to go see it.  Michaela said it was quite different from an American parade, but she had a lot of fun.  I hope to get pictures from her!

The rest of us helped Grandpa with more wood cutting and stacking today.  Daddy and Grandpa Hires will be glad to know that the boys are keeping up on their wood stacking skills while we are away from home.  :)  Johanna, Ami, and Elijah also enjoyed playing with the neighbor kids a bit since they were off school.  The neighbor kids tried to use a bit of English, and Johanna tried to use her Japanese.  But, of course, all you need is a ball or badminton rackets and that breaks any language barrier!

So here are a couple of pictures from the kids playing today.  The rest are off my phone.

 What I found after Ami made her bed one morning:

Working hard, or hardly working:

 

What I found when I went in to wake the girls one morning.  Ami's complaints are proven true....Johanna hogs the covers.

Poor girl had to snuggle up in a ball:

Johanna is extra toasty with all the covers, and her hand warmers on:

PE, home school in Japan style:

On nice days, the younger ones have enjoyed making forts in Grandpa and Grandma's yard.

I obliged to Ami's request to take silly pictures:

This would be the one shot that I tried to sneak (and got caught) at Nijo Castle:

Elijah's haircut at Grandma's "Hair Saron" (Japanese have a hard time with "l" and "r"):

Sunday Worship

This morning we worshiped next door at Dad and Mom's church.  I well remember as a teenager when I moved to Japan that sitting through church service seemed endless when I couldn't understand a lick of what was spoken.  I'm proud of my kids for sitting quietly and trying to participate when they can.  Michaela, Benjamin, and Johanna try to join in with the singing, as they can read most of the characters that are in the songs (great practice!).  Some of the songs are sung in Japanese and then in English, so that helps.  Communion is universal and each can obviously participate in that with no language barrier.  Regardless, it's sweet to know that heaven will be filled with people of every tribe and tongue, and language will not be a barrier!

(The song above....Freely, freely, you have received, freely, freely give.)

Kyoto

WARNING:  This is another picture heavy post!  Today was an all day event.  Dad and Mom only live about an hour away from Kyoto, Japan's second capital.  There are over three thousand Shinto shrines, and over three thousand Buddhist temples in Kyoto.  There are several World Heritage Sites, as well.  It is a city packed with history, Japanese culture, and tourists.  So we took off at nine this morning and didn't pull into home until after seven this evening.  We spent a lot of time in the car with traffic, but it was a fun day to see some Japanese culture.

No, this wasn't a coffee shop, just a cafe.  Hmmm...

Our first stop was Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, one of the many World Heritage Sites in Kyoto.  It dates from the 1300s during feudal times.  It's a zen temple and the top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf.  The grounds are beautiful.

My Thinker on the Philosopher's Stone:

I think the kids' favorite part was after the walk around the temple.  There were shops with yummy samples, including green tea with gold flecks in it!

Dad was our wonderful driver for the day.  He's waiting on his new hip (next month!), so just dropped us off at entrances, and waited at the exits for us.

Loved our udon lunch!

Our second main stop was at Nijo Castle, another WHS.  Below is just a corner of the wall around the castle.  This site was built in 1603 and was the "villa" of a major shogun.  He couldn't live in a residence "above" the emperor, so it's only a one story palace.  It's very sprawling, and quite amazing inside.  Unfortunately no photographs were allowed inside.  Okay, okay...so I tried to sneak a picture discreetly on my phone, but apparently the curators have pretty keen eyes.  Oops!

One of the unique (and very cool!) things about the palace is that all of the multiple separate buildings are connected by corridors with "nightingale floors".  They totally squeak with every step, so as to alert the residents to intruders.  We had to take our shoes off to walk through the corridors, and I thought it was great fun to hear the floors.  Apparently, Johanna and Ami did too, as they decided to bounce up and down a little bit on the floor.  Another curator quickly reprimanded them!  Oops again!

Again, the grounds were beautiful and immaculately kept.  Below, in all seriousness, this a Japanese lawn mower!  This gardener was on her hands and knees pulling grass up by bits and pieces.  Can you imagine?  The grounds were vast!

A stop for afternoon ramune....the Japanese soda in a bottle with the marble at the top.

"Sword fighting" with their new keychain souvenirs:

Along with no extra bouncing on the floors, no graffiti is allowed either.  :)

Here's for my friend, Jeff:

Not so sure about getting my hair done here.  Maybe the idea is that they can color your grey hair.  :)

I didn't purchase this souvenir, although I do find sumo somewhat entertaining.  It wasn't just the $60 price tag that discouraged me.

Hmmm, Western or Japanese style are the choices.  I've had my share of squatty potties, so Western it is.

Another place we visited was the Handicraft Center.  There are all sorts of traditional crafts on display and for sale, and from time to time you can observe the artisans at their work.  This was the woodblock printing area.  Such a neat art, but one we didn't get to see in action.

We did watch this guy creating Damascene.  He's been at it for 50 years!  It's the art of inlaying gold and silver into other metals as pieces of jewelry.  It's very time consuming, and very expensive, but oh so beautiful.  It originated in Damascus, Syria, thus the name.

Geisha on the street:

One of the seemingly hundreds of places that we passed in the car...they are on about every corner!

A neat day.  You could spend a month solely sight-seeing in Kyoto and still not hit everything.  I hope the kids came away with some memories today.